Catching our Breath after 5 Days in Delhi

We have spent 5 days and nights in Delhi now, and though I can't say that we're accustomed to it, I can say that we're adjusting well to it! We are staying at a guest house on the JNU campus, slightly spartan hotel-like accomodations. The best part is that the guest house is in the midst of the JNU campus, 1000 acres of virtually no traffic, winding roads through a park-like setting, fresh air, and quiet surroundings. It will likely be the best place for the four of us to do our running throughout our four-month stay in Delhi. I've met many of my new colleagues in the Center for Canadian, American, and Latin American Studies in the School of International Studies at JNU. I'll be team teaching two courses, which will give me the opportunity to travel elsewhere outside of Delhi to lecture or meet with Indian academics. JNU will no doubt take advantage of John's availability and get a lecture or two from him, as well.

Life in Delhi is very, very colorful, as I tried to hint at in my first Delhi blog entry. Every taxi and bus has a vivid painting on its rear side, saying, "Honk Please! Stay back! Stop!," and featuring a blackhaired, tongue-protruding gargoyle-like creature who must be the deity of all traffic mischief. Every street is an impromptu bazaar of vendors of everything from fruits to coconuts to houseplants to large basketry to pairs of new socks! The beggars are everywhere, some just begging and some doing tricks for money. Mostly we encounter them when in taxis. The one or two lepers we've seen begging have been truly sobering sights.

We hope to move into our permanent apartment and have schools selected by the end of this week--but that may just be the efficient American in me speaking, not the person who must now be operating on Indian Time.

I'll post pictures as soon as time and technology permit! For now, all's "thik-thik," OK!